Notes From Class
Virginia Woolf's "Three Guineas": *(...) symbolizes her inability of thoughts *discusses women's education *outside of possibility: language is too limited *foundation of her essay is based on daughters of educated men Ontology-the study of being in the world, how do we come into being? Epistemology-the study of what we know and how we know it HillColin's Feminist Thought: *"aims to empower African American women within the context of social justice sustained by intersecting oppressions" *addresses historical practices of oppression in work, housing, education, politics and dailty social interactions *"US black women as a group live in a different world from tha to fpeople who are not balck and female" *black feminist thought is hetergeneous *we can come together across lines of difference *acknowledges connection b/t knowledge and lived experiences, knowledge and action/activism Afrofuturism: *Audre Lorde-1934-1992: mixed family, "passed" as white, June Jordan-1936-2002: Jamaican Am. journalist, bisexual, Alice Walker-1944: "The Color Purple" activist/scholar/writer, Angela Davis-1944: Marxist feminist, prison laws, Black Panthers, bell hooks(Gloria Watkins)-1952: post-modern feminist - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodern_feminism *Defn: A fantasy, Afro-centric movement that includes literature, visual arts, and music that critiques historical and modern day oppression Queer Theory: *radical *outside of systems *resists classification *hard to portray because of limited language *Defn: expands its focus to encompass any kind of sexual activity or identity that falls into normative and deviant categories = rejects traditional categories of gender and sexuality *"The universalizing utopianism of queer theory does not entirely replace more minority-based versions of lesbian and gay theory" *The term "queer" has the effect of pointing out a wide field of normalization, rather than simple intolerance. "Queer" is also a way of cutting against mandatory gender division, though gender continues to be a dividing line. Straight Mind: *"When thought by the straight mind, homosexuality is nothing but heterosexuality." *"Lesbianism, homosexuality, and the societies that we form cannot be thought of or sopken of, even though they have always existed." The Five Sexes: *male, female, hermaphrodites (testis and ovary), male pseudohermaphrodites (testes, female genitalia), femal pseudohermaphrodites (ovaries, male genitalia) *language limits what & how gender can be defined Herland: *Describes a feminist utopia *Critique: Sexuality and desire give the potential for sexual violence *Vandyck Jennings: narrator, partners with Ellador, philosopher and most understanding of Herland-thinks it has much to teach the outside world *Jeff Margrave: doctor, partners with Celis, acts as protector and puts women on a pedestal which only truly causes more inequality, prefers Herland over anywhere else *Terry Nicholson: thinks a lot of himself, ladies' man, cocky, thinks women like to controlled physically/mentally by men, attempts to rape Alima Angles in America: *What does this play perform? homosexual perspectives, conflict, doubt, guilt, abandonment, humanity, loss, messiness, illness, mortality, religion/questioning faith, delusions, divinity, race, moving *Revelation comes to every character except Joe. He is unable to see humanity in others and is stuck on his own story. *Louis: Jewish, leaves his lover Prior when he gets AIDS, journey of abandonment/guilt to sorrow and repentence *Prior: becomes a Prophet visited by angels, rejects prophecy and wants to live longer *Joe: Mormon Republican, struggles with his sexuality, leaves his wife, has an affair with Louis (who later leaves him), the play abandons Joe *Harper: Joe's wife, addicted to Valium, imagines Mr. Lies to escape her realities, thinks Antarctica (lifeless, barren) is her utopia, learns through a dream with Prior that Joe is gay, moves to San Francisco to rebuild her life as a new and independent women *Roy Cohn: closeted homosexual, Joe's boss, sees Ethel Rosenberg's "ghost", selfish, after death of AIDS he becomes connected to the homosexual community *Belize: African American, nurse, drag-queen, friends with Prior, takes care of people, sympathetic, forgiving, sensible *Hannah Pitt: Joe's mother, Mormon, Prior and the Angel help her character *Prior tells Louis he loves him but that he can never go back to him. Harper leaves Joe. Four years later, Louis, Prior, Belize, Hannah appear in an epilogue. The "Great Work" will continue. BloodChild: *gender duty, male pregnancy, consent, coming of age, family structure, sibling relationships, child-bearing, slavery, agency, aging *Gan, Xuan Hoa=Terrans (humans) *T'Gatoi=Tlic, an insectoid creature/alien that needs to lay eggs inside a human, has eggs to drug and ease pain, slavery? The Evening & the Morning & the Night: *discrimination, reproductive rights, health care systems/prison, entrapment, what constitutes humanity, free will, touch, love, doubt/limitation, child caring for parents *Disease called DGD (Duryea-Gode Disease), both of Lynn's parents had the disease, and her father killed her mother and then killed himself, she goes to college and lives with four DGD people, she possess a special scent that has influence over other patients, will always have a spot to work at Dilg-a treatment center, in love with Alan? Speech Sounds: *intuition, communication, power & education, companionship & trust, jealousy, loss/grief, violence, resources, sexual violence, hope, weapons *Loss of ability to speak/read/write, Rye seeks out her family in Pasadena, fight breaks out on bus, Obsidian (dressed as a cop) restores order and gives Rye a ride in his car, during the car ride they witness a woman being stabbed by a man with a knife, Obsidian gets shot, Rye kills the attacker, 2 of the women's children emerge from the house and are able to speak V for Vendetta: *Reinscribes: white males are power figures, sexualized females, Evey being attracted to V *Expands: Evey becomes V, V is androgynous (face mask, roses, maternal, fine arts), V puts Evey in "prison" to break her ideas of power dynamic & gender binary *Evey no longer sees herself as part of the gender binary *Critique: individualism is important, don't be afraid of difference, motivation for social change, connection of people through a common thing (V), conflict & chaos *V: masked anarchist, survivor of an experiment of injections targeted at cells *Evey Hammond: 16 years old, is saved by V from the Fingermen, becomes V *Adam Susan: The Leader, in love with computer system called the Fate, *Eric Finch: The Nose, prefers order and sides with government *Rosemary Almond: abused wife of Derek Almond, when Derek is murdered she doesn't receive money and becomes a dancer, kills Adam Susan *Dominic: Finch's partner, the Nose, Evey rescues Dominic and he will become her successor of V *Gordon: takes in Evey after being abandoned, they become lovers *Creedy: replaces Derek Almond for the Fingers *Helen Heyer: wife of Conrad, uses sex to have power over her husband, sleeps with Harper *Conrad: The Eye, stabbed by Harper *Lewis Prothero: The Voice of Fate-radio broadcaster *Delia: doctor at Larkhill camp, V injects her with a deadly drug *Derek Almond: The Finger, abusive and drunk *Valerie: V's motivation to fight against Norsefire, a former actress and victim of Larkhill *Roger: The Mouth *The Nose - police *The Finger - secret detectives *The Eye - visual surveillance *The Ear - audio serveillance *The Mouth - broadcasting/news The Hunger Games: *Revises: reverse gender roles, Katniss doesn't need Peeta/Gale, acknowledges gender performance, femal protagonist, women's strength, Katniss' anger from love triangle *Reinforces: still uses gendered stereotypes, love story, no GLBT, patriarchy, focus on women's appearances *What poked the hole in the ideology? berry idea, Rue's death, resistance across districts/rebellion, sticking up for the weak/coalition building, Katniss plays along with heteronormativity/gender binary to her advantage and survival